OnPage may finally make pagers obsolete

How do you know that a guy in a crowd of people is an IT manager? That's easy: he's the one with a pager on his belt.

Even in this era of mobile phones, many companies rely on pagers to reach mission-critical employees when disaster threatens.

But pagers aren't the only solution for fast communication. For example, there's OnPage, a communication channel that can quickly alert anyone who needs to be reachable in a hurry. OnPage lets any monitoring service generate an incident alert and send it via email or SMS to an iPhone, an Android or a BlackBerry device.

OnPage's target users include server admins, disaster recovery personnel, continuity specialists, operation managers, IT help desks, and other IT staff.

For more details on how OnPage works with IT professionals, visit the company's website and check out the subscription price list. You can also follow news from OnPage on the company's Twitter feed. 

By: Ric Manning On 12/06/2014

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Mosspaper quote tool adds a web widget

In October, I introduced you to Mosspaper, a quote and contract management tool that lets users quickly and easily produce all of the documents needed to close a business deal. The program is designed for sales people, freelance contractors or anyone else who works with quotes and contracts.

By putting all the required elements online, Mosspaper can generate a price quote in five minutes and close the deal using e-signature support. Customers can enter comments and feedback that become part of the workflow information stream and clients can make a payment directly to you.

Now Mosspaper has expanded its features by adding new quote widget. The widget can be easily inserted into a business website, just like pasting the embed code for a YouTube video into a blog or website. Mosspaper says the widget has been confirmed to work on a variety of web platforms including Wix, Joomla, Weebly, SquareSpace, Moonfruit, IMCreator, DudaOne, Shopify, Yola, Strikingly, Jimdo, Google Blogger, and Blog.com.

"Our new quoting widget allows people to easily embed Mosspaper's functionality into their own site," said Cliff Fong, Mosspaper's co-founder and CEO. "We make it easy for their customers to request quotes for services as well as help them manage their quoting work flow with ease."

You can get more details at the Mosspaper website where you'll find a link to a full product demo and  a free 14-day trial. Mosspaper is also on Twitter.

By: Ric Manning On 12/05/2014

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Waypoint marker app lets you return to special spots

A few years ago, I hired a guide to give me a tour of a Civil War battlefield where my great-grandfather had fought. At one point, we left the marked trails and tramped through the woods for a few minutes before emerging in a clearing. It was there, he said that my ancestor's company had confronted and defeated an enemy artillery unit.

I'd love to someday show that spot to my children or grandchildren, but I know I could never find it again without help. It's too bad my phone didn't have a GPS tool like the On Spot Waypoint Marker Finder.

The app uses GPS coordinates to mark and remember locations that you visit and want to remember. It might be a spot with a lovely scenic view or one that yielded buried treasure to your metal detector.

The app records the date and location and lets you add notes and photos. Any spot you record can be displayed on a map.

The On Spot Waypoint Marker Finder costs 99 cents and is available for Android devices in the Google Play Store.

By: Ric Manning On 12/05/2014

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New music sprouts on Put A Chill radio

If you are a musician or artist living in the New York City area, there's a good chance you've already heard about the Put A Chill radio station. It's a streaming media source that offers exposure to new artists over a platform that reaches more than 1 million listeners each week.

The put A Chill website describes the service this way: "Put A Chill Radio’s relationship does not end with our broadcasts, we engage our audience across multiple platforms including web, email, text messaging, event marketing, social media sites and interactive phone lines. New York City’s hottest station owns the market’s largest social media following, allowing access for your clients where their consumers are."

The music player integrated into the site has a playlist that includes well-known artists such as Katy Perry, Lil Wayne and Drake as well and many new artists who are just getting established. The site also offers a large collection of music videos and links to Put A Chill's blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

By: Ric Manning On 12/03/2014

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Pikpic photo game keeps them guessing

If someone wants to post a photo of me online, that's fine by me. I don't care much what I look like. But that's not the case with my daughter. If I want to post a photo of her, it better have her approval. And, whenever possible, I need to submit multiple versions so she can choose the one she likes best.

Pikpic is a new app that works something like that. The app lets you send two photos to a friend. They don't see the photos, only a pair of question marks and the option to view one picture. Just one. When they click on one of the question marks, the selected photo appears. The one they didn't select disappears forever.

Pikpic is an interesting guessing game that will keep friends wondering what they missed. The next version of the app will include a feature where that lets you view what people near you are posting.

Pikpic is available free for iOS in the Apple iTunes Store. An Android version is in the works.

By: Ric Manning On 12/03/2014

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Jewels War 2 aims to crush other match games

If you think you've mastered the various gem-matching games that are available for your Android device, you need to test your skills with Jewels War 2.

Like some of the other games that feature colorful jewel graphics, JW2 asks you to match three or more jewels to make them disappear. But this version adds a series of challenges designed for only the best players. For example, there are more than 150 levels to conquer and each one is salted with hidden secrets.

If you match four jewels, you're rewarded with a bomb and a lightning strike. Match five and you get two lightning strikes. There's also a color-changing jewel that can eliminate any other colored jewel.

Get a closer look at Jewel Wars 2 in the video below and download the free version - with no in-game purchases - at the Google Play Store.

By: Ric Manning On 12/03/2014

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Zimly scores with mobile streaming

The ability to stream media on mobile devices has been available for a couple of years, but most of the solutions have been imperfect, or worse. Some require a separate media player, some only work on one or two platforms and others don't support all the file formats that they should.

Zimly hits all of those high notes and a few more. Zimly create your own personal media cloud on your home computer, whether it's a a PC or a Mac, and it offers mobile apps for both iOS and Android. It also works with Google's Chromecast.

Zimly's long list of features include a combined media player, for movie or music files stored on your device, and a streaming media player to handle external sources. The software is easy to configure, with a simple nine-digit PIN, and it automatically converts all of the popular file formats, from AVI and MKV to MP4 and MOV.

Check out the Zimly website for more details on all of the products, including the Zimly streamers for Windows and OSX. You can down the iOS version in the Apple iTunes Store and the Android version in the Google Play Store. You can also find Zimly on Twitter. 

By: Ric Manning On 12/02/2014

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Mars speakers levitate without magic

I’ve always wanted my own personal flying saucer. Maybe Mars is the answer.

Mars is a wireless speaker whose most remarkable feature is a floating disc. The developers at Crazybaby call it a levitation speaker system with subwoofer. Why levitate? “Placing wireless speakers directly on a plane surface led to a loss of audio quality,” they say. By letting wireless speakers levitate, the result is “a new level of listening experience.”

Mars has a 1.75 inch full-range speaker and a passive radiator inside the floating disc and a 4.5-inchsubwoofer and 10,000mAH powerbank inside its base that delivers the same charging power as this KMASHI Powerbank.  

The Mars speakers support Bluetooth 4.0 and can handle signals from two transmitting devices. In other words, you and a friend can trade off playing your favorite tracks.  Other features include wireless charging and automatic volume control that adjusts according to your distance from the speaker.

Crazybaby will be launching a crowdfunding campaign soon. For more details on Mars, stay earthbound and click to the Crazybaby website or Facebook page. 

By: Ric Manning On 12/02/2014

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